Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 16, 2007

The Scottish Parliament general election, 2007, will be the third general election to the Scottish Parliament since the devolved legislature was created in 1999. Polling will take place on Thursday 3 May. The election falls two days after the tricentenary of the political union of Scotland and England.

Jack McConnell, as First Minister, will go into the election commanding a small majority (of 5 seats) consisting of a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The Scottish Executive coalition has been in power, with three different First Ministers, since the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999. Opinion polls suggest its majority could be lost in 2007, due to falling support for the Labour Party and rising support for the Scottish National Party (SNP). No single party is likely to acquire an overall majority. Nor is there an obvious alternative coalition ready to form a new Executive.

The SNP, currently second place behind Labour in terms of numbers of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), seems best placed to gain from shifting voting patterns should Labour lose seats, and, based on current projections based on recent opinion polls, there could be some possibility of an SNP-Liberal Democrat coalition, which may extend to include the Scottish Green Party. The other parties now represented in the Parliament are the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), Solidarity and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party.